Cutting Edge

Cutting Edge is a student pitch project at the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU that is working on creating a 3-5 minute animated, interactive VR experience exploring the use of spatial jump cuts within the VR space.

Once we had our idea for story to showcase our cuts and transitions, I first started off by working on concept art for the various scenes that we needed for the project. Below is initial concept art for some of the scenes that we thought about

Once some sketches were mocked up, I began working on modeling various props for certain rooms and putting objects together. For the kitchen, I started by modeling the cabinets and stove and other appliances. Then I created a layout for the kitchen/living room and creating objects for the living room. Once I felt like I had an initial mockup for the space, I brought the scene into unity and began adding more thing in there. The models i created started in maya, then a high poly version was created in Zbrush, and then it was baked as a texture in substance painter.

Initial Kitchen layout in Maya

First iteration in Unity

Close Up of first iteration in Unity

Top Down View of Space

Updated version with more props added

Updated version with more props added

Initial TV Model

Stove Model - Modeled in Maya and then high poly model in Zbrush that was baked onto the object and textured in Substance Painter

Similarly, for the bedroom I began by making various props in maya then I did a high poly version of them in Zbrush and baked it on the low poly version using substance painter.

Bedroom Concept

Initial Bedroom Concept

First Iteration in Unity

Door and Bookshelf Model

Bed Model

We also had multiple scenes in a car, so I also modeled a car interior and exterior.

For the outdoor scenes, due to time we decided to use a nature pack from unity and arrange the various scenes using the different trees and plants they had, and then create our own roads.

First Half of the Semester

For the first half of the the semester I worked on creating storyboards for the different cuts we were creating and trying out, as well as work on arranging scenes. Since these were scenes to test out transitions, and not for our experience, we decided to use free assets online and arrange them in the scene. Additionally, I worked on concept art for some of the different environments that were needed for the experience.

One of the storyboard made for our car montage. This is based on the game, Virginia.

Sequence where the background changes, but the subject remains constant. This is based on the Spider-Man into the Spider Verse movie.

Another driving scene based on the Virginia game. This once we wanted to test taking away camera control for a second and seeing how people reacted.